Breakfast at Tiffany's
Ratings191
Average rating3.6
I haven't seen the movie in its entirety but I found the story insightful and intriguing. The relationship between the narrator and Holly is deep and realistic. Holly is free spirited, complex and naive. The character never faltered in the story. Capote's writing seems effortless and is not to be ignored. “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “ A Christmas Memory” should not be overlooked.
Key to liking Breakfast at Tiffany's (the book): don't think of the movie.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is really a great book while staying quite simple. It's a recollection of memories of an encounter with a truly distinct and petulant lady : Holly Golightly. The way the novel is built bring us back to those memories, and I think I've never felt such a connection with a memory than through this book. For such a (too) short moment, I felt connected to the narrator and seemed to also get to know Holly, her bluntness, her character, her craziness, ... I can't really explain what made me love this novel so much, but there it is, I really grew fond of Holly and all her world, and while the book ends on quite an open note, it left me with a sweet feeling...
“You can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky.”
Not sure how I managed to live 32,5 years on this planet without ever reading the book or even watching the movie.
Holly Golightly is a surprisingly dark character, very nicely penned.
Am not sure why this one resonates with so many, why it's so acclaimed, but it is. For the most part, the narrative left me cold, as did the characters.
Capote's descriptions on the other hand...great stuff, delicious writing there. Made it worth my while, but I can't imagine I'll be back for more.
While this way a very good character sketch, I didn't really feel any way about this novella. Holly slept around and had a very unrealistic view of life. However everyone has dreams, but Holly just had no sense of where she was headed in life. All she knew was she wanted to live wherever she felt was home, a place similar to how she feels when she's at Tiffany's. I guess my problem with this short story is that I couldn't connect with Holly's life nor the narrator's feeling towards Holly. I just couldn't get into the story that much, but the writing of it is wonderful and for its time it displays very risque behavior for a female in the 1940s. If not for Capote's wonderful character sketch and insight into a city and time period portraying what was acceptable and unacceptable in such a bold, sassy Holly, I probably would've gave this novella only 1 star.
2.5 I'm not a fan of the movie, but liked this a lot more. I've had a string of disappointing reads of classic books this year. It's hard to get past all the racist comments and descriptors that get casually thrown around.
Somehow the first capote I've read. There are bits of it which aged like milk but otherwise this is a pretty stellar short novel. Also the audiobook is read by Michael C Hall in a top notch performance.
Fourth hour, fourth book completed. (Mind you, all my books for the read-a-thon were jump started; I'm not really reading books...I'm finishing them.)
And not just another book completed...another GREAT book completed. I would recommend highly all the books I've read today.
Breakfast at Tiffany's. I'd seen the movie. I've read two other Capote books and was wowed by them. Breakfast at Tiffany's is equally wonderful. The juxtaposition of our narrator and Holly Golightly makes the book. Holly would probably be called manic-depressive today when she was hospitalized but to the narrator and her other admirers she has that rare zest for life that is to wonderous to behold. Others, more thoughtful observers, would also see in Holly the devastation she left in her wake.
3.5 stars
Micheal c Hall is just stellar as the narrator. I'm not always a fan of men doing women's voices, but his were believable. Sometimes I even forgot that he was the only one narrating because there were different accents and things that were really well done. I didn't quite connect to the story even though it's very well written.
I read this decades back. Brilliant. It's hard to believe that the same author who wrote In Cold Blood also wrote this wonderfully poignant tale of a young woman at sea in New York.
Beautiful and devastating. I'm glad I read this. It definitely added to my appreciation of the movie.
I enjoyed the book more the second time around, especially when narrated by Michael C Hall. The narration definitely put a new, darker, spin on the book for me. I loved all Hall's character voices except that of Holly, but I'd still give this 5 star for the narration and 4 or less for Capote because I still just don't really like the book.
The narrative changes and it can be hard to know who is talking or what is going on. There is a lot going on in the story, but I found it an interesting story.
I'm glad I read this, as I was not familiar with the story behind Breakfast at Tiffany's. But I actually liked the short stories at the end more than I liked Holly Golightly's story.
This volume also includes three of Capote's best-known stories, “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “A Christmas Memory.”
Truman Capote style is great. It's easy to read, and most importantly, enjoyable.